2023: the web is making progress, mobile apps are lagging behind

Monday, January 22, 2024

However, this momentum should not obscure the fact that this average is still too close to the threshold of partial compliance (50% and above), and that the objective set by law is, quite simply, 100% compliance.

The disparities seen last year are even more marked this year, with five very good performers fairly high up the league table (Portal for Public Procurement Contracts, logement.lu, National Portal for Public Inquiries, Inspectorate of Labour and Mines and, finally, the new Chamber of Deputies website), all well ahead of the number one for 2022 (covid19.public.lu, 66%).

First lesson: at 89% compliance, full compliance is not an unattainable goal, even for rather rich and complex portals.

The second lesson is that, while the CTIE "trumps" the top four places, revealing a certain expertise in digital accessibility, other players have managed to ensure compliance, most notably the project team behind the redesign of the chd.lu portal.

Less than half of the sample (7 sites) exceeded the 50% compliance mark, the threshold that separates non-compliance from partial compliance.

Description of graph 1

This bar chart shows fifteen public sites targeted for full audits in 2023 in descending order of compliance with the RGAA criteria, from marches.public.lu (89%) to liser.lu (27%).

Below 50%, a site is not considered accessible. 8 out of 15 sites audited

A compliance rate is a summary of compliance and non-compliance identified through 106 RGAA criteria, with in turn are divided into thirteen themes. However, it is only a measure, and a high rate does not guarantee an accessible site. A web portal may have a rate of over 90%... if the remaining percentages penalise inaccessible navigation, the set of web pages cannot be consulted by people with disabilities.

Top 10 non-compliances: problems that are easy to solve...

Which criteria were most often found wanting? In other words, what went most wrong in the audits carried out in 2023?

There are many style issues, and yet they are relatively simple to improve: text and interactive components (such as buttons) that need better contrast, empty paragraphs that could be replaced by a dedicated style with an appropriate margin, and a focus that is too inconspicuous, or even invisible, when a user navigates using the tab key. In most cases, all that's needed is to adjust the site's style sheet. Occasionally, a specific development, such as the provision of a style switcher, is required.

Description of graphic 2

This bar chart shows the ten of the 106 RGAA criteria most frequently cited in the audits carried out on fifteen public sites in 2023.

In the top three: elements that are easy to resolve

Then come questions of information structure: do headings properly organise the content of the page? Do headings and lists use canonical HTML tags? These and other factors enable assistive technologies to ensure that the page is navigated as smoothly as possible. These technologies will render the content all the better if each language change has been indicated by developers... or the content editors.

This last point is important: in a certain number of cases (insufficient contrasts, abusive use of HTML tags for presentation purposes, absence of relevant headings, decorative images that are not ignored by screen readers), the responsibility can fall to the development team or the editorial team... hence the need for dedicated accessibility training adapted to all those involved in a web project.

... and other less basic elements

The compatibility of scripts with assistive technologies is a specific issue for developers. These are often vital interaction elements - a navigation menu, for example - for which compliance with ARIA design patterns may require new development.

Office documents (PDFs and Office documents) complete the picture: they are not easy to make accessible and can be a barrier to information unless an alternative, such as an accessible web page, is provided. The year 2023 saw the arrival, on our portal, of a framework specially designed for the accessibility of PDFs: we invite you to consult it and to (re)read our study on the accessibility of PDFs published on public sites.

Mobile apps: a problematic decline

It's impossible to talk about any progress here, when the compliance rate for apps audited last year was 49%... compared with 43% in 2023. A loss of six points raises questions, given that only two apps in the ranking are compliant: Meteolux, with a more than respectable score of 66%, and vdl.lu (59%).

Description of graph 3

This bar chart shows six public apps targeted for full audits in 2023 in descending order of compliance with RAAM criteria, from the Meteolux app on Android (66%) to the LLO app on iOS (26%).

Only two apps were partially compliant in 2023: the situation warrants a major overhaul.

In a world where apps are being used on an ever-increasing scale, the effort to ensure they are compliant must be of the utmost importance.

The framework dedicated to apps, RAAM, divides 107 criteria into fifteen themes. Six criteria account for half of all non-compliances:

• Two criteria integrated into the "Colour" theme, penalising inadequate contrasts in text and user interface components;
• One criterion invalidating components that are incompatible with assistive technologies (for example, a component that does not announce its nature or name, buttons without labels, a menu that does not announce a change of state, "open" or "closed");
• A criterion revealing the absence of appropriate headings to structure the information;
• A criterion revealing the impossibility of doubling the font size while keeping all the text legible;
• Finally, a criterion revealing an incompatible app in landscape mode.

Other criteria include ensuring that decorative images are ignored by screen readers, that lists are correctly structured, that user interface components can be controlled by the keyboard or any other pointing device, and that the app's documentation is accessible and describes its accessibility features.

The gap between municipalities and state sites remains

In addition to the full audits, the SIP carried out 93 simplified web audits. The average score (56%, two points higher than in 2022) is close to that recorded for the full web audits. Ten sites have a compliance rate of over 80% - all .public.lu sites, including infocrise.public.lu, the only site to achieve full compliance, according to the criteria examined. More than half of the sample (56 sites) exceeded the 50% compliance mark.

Description of graph 4

This bar chart shows, in descending order, the compliance rates of the top ten sites from the sample of 93 sites analysed in 2023 as part of the simplified audit campaign, from infocrise.public.lu (100%) to justice.public.lu (81%).

93 sites benefited from a simplified audit in 2023. The top ten excel.

At the bottom of the ranking are still mainly local authority sites. The gap between these and the state-run sites remains wide. And while the gap is tending to narrow by three points compared with 2022, this is not due to an improvement in the average for local sites (which remains at 47%) but to a slight fall in the average for state sites, which has dropped by three points.

Description of chart 5

This column chart shows the average levels of compliance with the RGAA criteria according to whether the site belongs to the State domain (64%), the local level (communes, communal unions, etc.: 47%) or another level (public establishments and similar bodies: 49%), among 93 public sites targeted for simplified audits in 2023.

From one year to the next, the average number of municipalities stagnates and remains in the non-compliant range

Fewer complaints... but all satisfied

Eighteen in 2020-2021, nine last year and three on 19 December 2023: the complaints that any citizen can submit, in particular via the SIP's online complaints form, this year concerned exclusively accessibility problems relating to PDF files on government websites. In all cases, a solution was quickly proposed.

Progress set to increase

Comparedwith 2022, the picture is fairly positive: despite a poor performance in terms of mobile apps, the sites are showing palpable progress, but this is only a half-hearted result if we consider the margin for improvement that still exists... right up to compliance. 2025 is a year away: the private sector will also have to set an example in terms of digital accessibility, as required by the law passed in March 2023. The public sector has one year to show its credentials. Here are the websites and apps that will be audited over the next two years.